Zombie Cow Studios’ Dan Marshall, creator of point-and-click adventure games Ben There, Dan That! and Time Gentlemen, Please! was kind enough to answer some probing questions from Society Eye this week.
Responsible for the coding, design, artwork and writing of the games alongside his good pal Ben Ward (and a host of other helpers), Dan makes classic comedy adventures that will warm the cockles of anyone who grew up with Lucasarts games like Day of the Tentacle and Monkey Island.
Critically acclaimed on sources like Eurogamer (9/10) Rock Paper Shotgun and Wired, Zombie Cow’s independent titles are rapidly growing in popularity – and at incredibly affordable prices, it’s hard for Society Eye not to jump on the acclaim train too.
Alex Hayter: Hi Dan. What’s your favourite adventure game of all time?
Dan Marshall: Definitely Sam and Max: Hit the Road. It was funny, clever, beautiful and inventive. Ben would say Day of the Tentacle, probably.
AH: Why do you make point-and-click adventure games?
Dan Marshall: I make all sorts of games, actually, but Zombie Cow Studios have become known for the most recent two, Ben There, Dan That! and Time Gentlemen, Please!, a pair of comedy adventure games. They’re really fun to make – designing them, thinking up puzzles and how the player will explore them, is a really interesting process.
AH: How long does it take you to make a game like TGP?
Dan Marshall: It depends – TGP was made during weekends and evenings, so actually took nine months or so… obviously if I’d been working on it full-time, that’d be considerably less..
AH: Any chance of your games being made available on Xbox Live/WiiWare/PSN?
Dan Marshall: Both BTDT and TGP are made using Adventure Game Studio, which isn’t portable to consoles at this time. If that changes, I’ll look into it…!
AH: TGP starts with Ben and Dan being responsible for the extermination of the planet’s population, due to death by Magnum, P.I. re-runs. Throughout Ben There, Dan That! you kill several characters in your adventure. Is the presence of death in your games a reaction to the lack of fatalities in most other adventure games, or do you and Ben just have a penchant for cappin’ fools?
Dan Marshall: Hmmm… I don’t know really. We didn’t really think it through that much – it’s just one of those things that felt like a nice running gag during development…
AH: Britain isn’t known for producing point-and-click adventure games. Is national pride a big deal to you when it comes to enjoying videogames and their developers? Do you like your games to feel quintessentially “British”?
Dan Marshall: BTDT and TGP do feel very British, I don’t know why we played on that so much – it sort of felt like the right thing to do. Because they’re not ‘talkies’, there’s a lot of reading and no accents… so I suppose we wanted to make sure everyone was reading in the right style.
AH: As superbly brilliant as TGP And BTDT are, they hearken back to an older style of game – where the innovation is in narrative and style, rather than gameplay. Is it fair to say that your focus is more on creating a fun and enjoyable experience than pushing the boundaries of today’s videogames?
Dan Marshall: We’re a small company. Massive innovation tends to mean money to throw at ideas, and development time. Unfortunately, right now, we can’t afford that sort of luxury. I think the games definitely push boundries in terms of humour and puzzle design – two things we focused on specifically for TGP.
AH: Playing with Ben and Dan is a lot like seeing a couple of my mates going off on a wacky adventure. In Lucasarts games, I often felt like I was playing with oddballs from another dimension (whether it was Hoagie, Bernard, Sam or Guybrush). Do you aim for a more relatable, more human experience with your games?
Dan Marshall: Ben and Dan are based on real people, although exaggerated, so I suppose it’s only natural they feel more realistic than cartoonish characters like Bernard… with Dan and Ben, it’s in the conversations. Watch them natter for a bit, and they start to come across as quite human cartoons.
AH: Ben and Dan, like Sam and Max, are quite affectionately attached to one another. Are your adventure games really just about good old friendship? Do you think this theme of genuine comradery is lacking in today’s gaming world (where teamwork is more goal-centered than intrinsically motivated)?
Dan Marshall: BTDT and TGP, to me, are largely about friendship and platonic man love. As we progress with the characters through the two games (and beyond), you start to feel a real history between them there, and that’s very important as a narrative. Between all the bum jokes and jibes at modern culture, there’s a backbone of camaraderie… I certainly can’t think of any games off the top of my head where the main characters really feel like they have a sense of history and relationship.
AH: Playing time has become very economized in today’s videogames, where 60-dollar games try to stretch 60 hours of gameplay in a game, regardless of whether it is consistently fun. Do you ever think about this when making your games, and try to consciously avoid doing this?
Dan Marshall: We tried to make TGP as long as possible, but to be honest, now that I’m approaching 30, I don’t have 60 hours to play games, I’ll have forgotten what happened at the start by the time I get to the end! I’m all about short, lovely jabs of entertainment – something to slot into that hour gap you’ve got. As gamers get older, I’m hoping it’s the way the industry will go.
AH: When a talented developer makes money off of games, they have more resources to create more awesome games. Is your current method of sales enough to support you as a games developer?
Dan Marshall: Just about, yes. I could do with selling another 100,000 copies or so though so I can buy more trinkets.
AH: Do you think that the popularity of making some of your games free will pay off in the long run?
Dan Marshall: Crumbs, I hope so. At this point, it’s great if people find out about the studio, who we are and what we do… that’s marginally more important at the moment than endless swimming pools full of money, anyway!
AH: What’s next around the corner for you, games-wise?
Dan Marshall: We’ve got a few interesting projects in the pipeline. Keep an eye on zombie-cow.com for updates!
Thanks Dan.
If you’re interested in joining in on Dan and Ben’s adventures through the space-time continuum, make sure you drop a couple bucks on Time Gentlemen, Please!
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